An Expensive Week

Bass and soft case: ~1500 HKD
Beijing travel package (hotel and airfare): ~4500 HKD
Mainland visas: probably going to end up at ~2000 HKD

Also included under misc. expenses: food/travel/entertainment/frivolous purchases/vending machines/need to refill Octopus card/will eventually have to put more on my SIM card/laundry/air conditioning

On one hand, well yeah spending this much money sucks. Especially being raised in the way I was (read: Asian) spending money is often a painful experience, and having to spend more and more isn't helping anything.

Other hand: how lucky am I to be able to spend this much money? "Oh no I have to spend money on luxury goods!" I mean let's not get carried away, I'm quickly burning through three summers of working as well as a...disciplined (read: too small) stipend from my school so it's not like I can afford my lavish (I'm stuck in a dorm room with a bed that's almost too small) lifestyle forever, but dang.

I'm twenty years old and am spending money on traveling in Asia. I think about all the stories that my parents have told me about growing up poor (walking uphill both ways to school, you know the ones), and it's striking: how many fortunate turns have put me in the situation I am now?

That my family has been able to even think about putting me into this situation (much less my brother a couple of times, that knucklehead) is nothing short of spectacular.

I put it poorly this afternoon when confronted with how much money I had to spend this week, I said "Things could be worse." You know what the truth is? "It would be harder for things to be better"